Isla
Instagram: @islashelly Email: sayhellotoisla@gmail.com
The question I came with: What is healing? The question I leave with: What does healing work look like for me?
How would you sum up your Makers Marathon in 3 words?
Tell us about something you’ve made. Around halfway through the marathon I was moving house and as a result, I had little to no time/energy to spend on making. I had gone three weeks without creating anything and I remember feeling really disappointed. During a coaching conversation with Katie, I discovered mini-making: 1-5 minutes where I make something new out of materials that are within reach. That’s when I painted my first shell (pictured below). The painted shell was my healing response to this busy time period when I was deeply craving to create but felt scared to spend all my energy on making and overwhelmed by life admin. Mini-making is now a very important tool in my toolbox that I go to when I want to make but don’t know where to start or struggle to find the time.
A healing experience. How would you define making? Making is capturing a thought/idea (noticing), visioning what it could look like in the real world (imagining), then doing everything you can to make that vision come true under the constraints that exist (hoping). Making is seeing the world as your studio, your canvas, your guide, your inspiration and your toolbox. Making ideas are everywhere, you don’t need to create anything new, you just need to get good at finding them. What have you learned from this process? ‘Don’t let the writer you think you should be, stop you from becoming the writer you could be.’ This quote is from one of my favourite TV shows, The Bold Type, and it encapsulates my greatest learning from this process. I need to let go, to surrender, to not make sense, to make a clay model of a bathtub, a collage of a woman and then an audio of ocean sounds. I need to follow my instinct, not my logic. I need to allow myself to be.
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The Makers’ Marathon peer group making and chatting on their Kick Off Weekend
This lesson goes so much deeper than my making practice; it’s my life philosophy, and my rebellious response to a world that demands my choices must make sense.
Mini-making
What advice would you give to someone who wants to connect with their inner maker? What does play mean to you? If this is the first time asking yourself this question then don’t let it be the last. Your inner maker is desperate to play, to be spontaneous and to adventure. In adulthood we’ve lost the art of play in exchange for sensibility and safety. Play can mean something different to everyone - be it face painting on a weekday, going for a walk without a map or eating breakfast for dinner. Whatever it is, let yourself be cheeky, let yourself be rebellious, let yourself be surprised.
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